


Aquiver

by The_Readers_Muse



Series: Kabby: Alpha/Omega [2]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alpha!Marcus, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Mating, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mating Rituals, Omega!Abby, Post 1x11, this trope always has dub-con for possible consent issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-05
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-24 18:47:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6163082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Readers_Muse/pseuds/The_Readers_Muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the low hum of building background noise that finally woke her. Snapping awake so suddenly that Jackson nearly toppled off the pile of medical crates he was sitting on while taking her vitals.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own The 100. Everything belongs to whoever owns them, my wishful thinking aside.
> 
> Authors Note #1: This is my first work in this fandom, so I am really just testing the waters. – This is the sequel to: "Ineffable," (Part two of my Kabby: Alpha/Omega series) basically telling the story of what happened next and this time told in Abby's point of view. Set in the realm of 1x11 when the camera pans out after Kane found Abby after going through the shaft to see if there was anyone left in the Service Bay after the Exodus ripped away from the Ark. – This part of the series goes off into AU territory where there was more time between the end of 1x11 and the start of 1x12 and the events of this fic take place between the race to save Abby's young patient and the re-running simulations to save the Ark and get to Earth.
> 
> Warnings: Please keep in mind this story deals with the alpha/beta/omega universe, featuring alpha!Marcus and omega!abby. Expect extreme sexual content, heat/rut sex, contraceptives, adult language, dub-con to be safe due to freaky biology and the consent issues that come part and parcel with this trope.
> 
> Aquiver

It was the low hum of building background noise that finally woke her. Snapping awake so suddenly that Jackson nearly toppled off the pile of medical crates he was sitting on while taking her vitals.

"Abby! Jesus! You scared me!"

She blinked, looking around as much as the man would allow as he slowly eased her up. Shoving a packet of water into her hands as he took her blood-pressure. Bullying her through every sip until her head cleared and the dizzying spin was replaced by something she could recognize.

_The mess hall._

_She was in the mess hall._

"You've been out for almost ten hours," Jackson admitted, heading her off before she could ask. "We've been treating you for mild Hypoxia and exhaustion, like the others. You were lucky, Abby. Another few minutes and you would have slipped into coma. If Kane hadn't gotten through the maintenance hatch when he did-"

_Marcus._

_Oh god._

The details came back to her in a rush.

His scent was all over her.

_Saturated. Alluring. Familiar._

She inhaled the rich tones of his rut without even thinking about it.

_Wanting more._

He'd saved her.

_Chosen her._

And now he needed her.

"Marcus, is he-" she started, pulling in a heavy breath. Still feeling like her lungs hadn't quite caught up. Struggling a bit through the already thin oxygen as Jackson offered her a mask and told her to breathe deeply.

But Jackson just shook his head in response.

"Medical was almost destroyed, we salvaged most of the supplies but-"

"Not the rut suppressants?" she finished flatly. Having a feeling where this was going from the start considering how jumpy and guilty he looked. It took more out of her than it should have to keep her expression blank.

_Diana Sydney had a lot to answer for._

_If their drop ship even made it to the ground, that is._

She closed her eyes, concentrating on her breathing before she opened them again.

Anger wasn't going to help them now.

And it certainly wasn't going to help Marcus.

It hadn't escaped her notice that perhaps only a few weeks ago, her feelings might have been different. Something had translated – transmuted – _changed_ when it came to him. _Them_. It wasn't his rut. It wasn't biology. It was something that had been evolving slowly - recently. It was something that needed more time, only they didn't have it.

_This was destined to be a slow burn, she could see that now._

_Hindsight and stubbornness aside._

_But he needed her now._

_And despite it all, she wanted to go to him._

"Where is he?" she asked, looking around until she was satisfied they had things more or less under control. Rumpled uniforms wading through a milling sea of patients as the rest of the crowd ebbed and flowed like an unsteady tide around the edges of the room.

"Confined to quarters," Jaha remarked, making a sudden appearance over Jackson's right shoulder. Nodding the man off as he crouched down beside her, expression stressed and kind.

"By the time we were able to get the main doors open you were unconscious and he was- well. He attacked the guards who tried to move you. Someone was eventually able to calm him down enough for one for one of the nurses to knock him out. They had to use a pretty hefty dose to put him out so we could move him safely. His burns were treated but by that point there was a string of Omegas starting to respond to his rut and- if he woke up we didn't want him out in the open, feeling vulnerable, so we left him in his quarters with an open com. We are monitoring his vitals – I'm not going to lie, they're unstable. He is past the point where even if we found a case of suppressants tucked away somewhere, they wouldn't be any help."

Her eyes flickered up to the fresh bruise highlighting the curve of the man's cheekbone.

"How did you get that?" she questioned, frowning. Suppressing the impulse to tip the man's chin so she could see it better. _It almost looked like someone had hauled back and punched him in the-_

"Who do you think was able to distract him long enough to get a stranger with a needle that close?" Jaha returned, smiling wryly as he gestured towards it unconcernedly. "When it became clear we were trying to sedate him, he took it as an attempt to separate the two of you and-"

"I get the idea," she replied without asking any further. Knowing that when Marcus returned to normal he'd beat himself up enough for the both of them. "What's been done so far?"

"So far?" Jaha echoed, head cocked like he hadn't quite heard her before looking off to the side. Avoiding her gaze. "Abby…this isn't-"

"There has to be something we can do, Thelonious," she insisted, mustering the will to continue from the well of strength she kept centered in her chest. Forcing the words even though every single one made her want to grit her teeth and look for challengers. "We can't just let him die. Screw the protocols! There has to be something!"

_Marcus wasn't hers._

_He wasn't._

_Only-_

"With the oxygen recyclers out everyone has to know there's an Alpha in rut by now. That means we have volunteers. Options. You can't tell me there isn't a line out the door?" she insisted, hating herself for sounding so rational when the Omega in her snarled a vicious negative.

She wasn't sure why they were just sitting here. They were on borrowed time already. Regardless of what happened, the next few steps had to happen fast. Alpha biology was uncompromising. Normally rut occurred once a year in the spring to coincide with the Omegas most fertile heat cycle. Once started, there was no going back. And medically, it seemed like they were out of options. Which meant-

"When he presented there wasn't an Omega in all twelve stations that didn't want him," she pointed out. Winded by the beginning flare of irritation when Jaha stared back at her with a strange look on his face.

 _Or at least the Alpha side of him_ , she amended silently.

Feeling a whole lot like she was chewing through glass as she remembered how the gossip had grown salacious and admiring once word spread that the son of Vera Kane had presented as an Alpha. The first in over twelve years, after Diana Sydney. But the gossip had turned cut-throat soon enough, however. Especially after Marcus sent more than a few of them packing over the years with clear distain. Leaving them sulking with bruised egos until some not completely undeserved observations on his character were shared and eventually the rumor mill moved on to fresher fare.

But Jaha just sighed, wiping a band of sweat from his temples as the hive of activity carried on around them. Insulating them in a bubble that seemed to defy time and space as the Ark struggled to keep essential systems running.

"All that might be true, but the fact is, Kane doesn't want any of them," he cut in, bomb-shelling her into a sudden silence as he leaned forward. Resting his hand on the jut of her shoulder – softly cautious. It would have sounded gentle, soothing even if she didn't know him better. But of course, she did. And she knew like the back of her hand this was the tone he used before-

"Except for you, Abby. Turns out, out of everyone on the Ark, you're the only one he wants."


	2. Chapter 2

"Marcus?"

The door hushed closed behind her.

It wasn't an ominous sound.

There was no fear here.

But it was significant.

Or at least made significant by the fact that he was nowhere to be seen.

She blinked. Not entirely sure what she'd been expecting as she took a quick moment to look around. Realizing all at once that despite knowing each other their entire lives, she hadn't ever been inside before. Marcus had always been private. Reserved. Controlled. Treating his office and quarters like territory to defend rather than the closest thing their people had to a home. And despite the circumstances she couldn't deny that seeing the places he called his own wasn't ghoulishly thrilling in its own way.

Unfortunately for her curiosity however, it was immediately apparent that she wasn't exactly seeing it in all its usual glory. Because while she could still see traces of that neat, controlled veneer, it didn't negate the fact that his quarters were probably a direct representation of his current mental state. A bit of a disaster.

It was like he'd taken out everything he couldn't elsewhere on the contents of his quarters.  
Leaving behind a path of aggression-fuelled frustration in the form of rumpled sheets, abandoned books, clothes, data pads. Even the view screen, still playing the "Condensed History of Alpha and Omega relations" was prattling on to an empty room. Like that too hadn't been able to hold his interest.

She inhaled audibly, nose twitching.

The entire space reeked of rut and a gamut of conflicting emotions.

_Well, if he'd been trying to distract himself it certainly hadn't worked._

_At least not for long._

She jumped, startled when the sound of something heavy clanging against the metal floor reverberated up through her feet. She edged cautiously out of the living quarters and down the small hall, following the sound of running water to the source. The small bathroom unit at the end.

"Marcus?"

She found him, half drowned and naked in the shower cubical in the rear compartment. He had his arms braced against the tiles, head slung low between them and shivering as the ice-cold spray streamed down the clean line of his back.

Her mouth went dry. Words getting lost before they made it to her tongue as she took him in unabashedly. Having absolutely nothing to blame the jerk of arousal and yes- _fondness_ that came with it. The timing didn't seem right – or even in the vaguest realm of appropriate – but she figured that since she was here by invitation the man probably wouldn't mind.

His eyes were closed. Chest expanding and contracting roughly as he curled his hands into the silicone layered grout. Dark hair slicked to the scalp and arrowing down his forehead like an inverted widow's peak. Cock hard and curved tight against his belly as the dim overhead lights bathed it all in an undeniably appealing contrast. Highlighting the smooth plain of his chest and the lithe muscles that made up the rest.

_Runners muscle._

She'd never seen Marcus like this. Tense, hamstring-wild and edging towards feral the longer she watched as his fist clenched around the edges of the bulkhead like a lifeline. He'd always been a little bit dangerous, like the smoke that comes before the fire. But nothing like this. He was stripped, flayed down to nerves and base drives. Deaf to everything external as his lips pulled back to reveal blunt human teeth like he was about to-

"Marcus?"

It wasn't until he stiffened, whirling in place as water fanned out that she realized he hadn't actually heard her approach. That he _hadn't_ been trying to keep his control from snapping completely the moment she'd come in like she'd assumed. Instead, he hadn't heard her at all. She'd caught him unaware, vulnerable and honestly, _whip-lash_ would have been less violent if she had to put a descriptor on his reaction.

That was the part that really shocked her. An Alpha in rut was hyper-aware. Violent. Territorial. Aggressive. An Alpha in rut without a mate, or separated from their chosen was a thousand times worse on all counts. They knew because history was still just as brutal in hindsight and it was back then. Being a well-known fact that at least half the major battles in Earth's history had been started by purely that. Trying to keep a bonded pair or a soon to be bonded pair apart.

_He must have been really out of it not to notice a new scent._

_Especially an Omegan scent._

_That meant he was worse off than they'd thought._

_Christ, how long had he been like this?_

_It must have been torture._

"Hey, hey- it's just me," she soothed, reaching out before she could really think the action through as she caught the small of his wrist in hers. Squeezing affirmingly as he jerked forward, towering over her. Using her own relationship with gravity to pull her into the curve of his chest – protective – as he looked over her shoulder for threats.

"Abby?" he rasped, hoarse, fractured, reverent and disbelieving all at once. Enough to make her wet and break her heart just a little bit more as the jumble of words left her mouth in a rush.

"I am sorry, Marcus- I don't think anyone knew how bad it was. I would have come sooner, I just woke up and Jaha said-"

Marcus snarled.

_Actually snarled at the name._

Body language harsh and on point as his eyes flashed dark.

Feeling the tendons in his arms pull tight as his hands fisted at his sides.

"They took you," he breathed hoarsely, the water from the shower misting across his back as the cool water hit his overheated skin and threatened to steam the glass sides of the cubical. "I couldn't-"

"I know," she assured, voice lowering into a soothing Omegan churl. Designed by nature to help an Omega placate their Alpha and diffuse tense situations. Affirming their choice when it came time for their Alpha's rut as the changing octave caught his attention almost immediately. Turning his focus back on her as he watched her closely. Letting go of a low rumble that made the Omega in her want to sink down and present.

Instead, she reached for the towel still folded neatly on the rack. Fumbling a bit as his eyes followed her. Swaying closer so that the hair's breadth of space that remained between them stayed steady. Like the needle pointing to True North constantly swinging home.

"Come on, let's get you dry," she insisted. "You must be freezing."

The sound he made in response was half a laugh, half a broken, hysterical sound.

"It feels like my skin is on fire," he replied, gaze going unfocused even though she could still feel the heat of it lingering down the nape of her neck. Getting distracted by something he was clearly not up to sharing as the air condensed around them. Turning thick with arousal and possibility as they teetered together on the very cusp of it.

She looked down as she held out the towel. Taking a deep breath the same moment she tried to tell herself that she had a valid, professional reason to peek. Her cheeks flaming hot with a surprisingly violent blush as she followed the thin trail of dark hair down his chest. Having to force herself not to sink down right then and there as the Omega in her whined with want. Aroused and agitated as another wave of rut hormones threatened to buckle her knees completely.

He was large and uncut, purple-red and straining through the foreskin. His crown was flared, ridges classically swollen, puffy and sheened with the slick that was steadily trickling from the slit. And of course, the bump that stood out just below the head. The pre-knot that heralded where his true-knot would form when he slipped into her.

She licked her lips. Panties damp and sticking against her skin as she imagined it inside her. Radiating receptiveness on a level that was almost pathological as her hand twitched. Tightening around the towel as she wavered forward a half-step.

God he was so-

_He needed her._

_She wanted to._

She'd never had-

" _Jesus Christ, Abby_ ," he growled. "You aren't making this easy."


	3. Chapter 3

She jerked her eyes up, caught red-handed as she tipped her chin and found his eyes glowing down at her. Expression a trenched-up mess of want, need, desperation and something so much more. Visibly holding himself back as the shower switched off automatically. The last drops _plink-plinking_ down the drain like all the words that remained unspoken between them.

"Did it help?" she asked curiously, changing the topic with as much grace and speed as possible. Giving him at least a modicum of privacy as she held up the towel until he was forced to take it. Holding it up against him, bunched and useless as he stared down at her, uncomprehending. Every fraction of his attention focused on her and her alone until she sighed and took it back from him. Using gentle, hesitant strokes as she started to pat him dry. "The water, I mean?"

"It did in the beginning," he answered slowly, like the words themselves were hard. Wavering in place as he inhaled throatily, making no effort to hide his interest as water streamed freely from the dark, wet-plastered curls of his hair and down his chest.

She wasn't unaffected.

_Not by a long shot._

"I could almost freeze out the feeling. Make the burning stop. But I couldn't get deep enough," he added after a long pause, attention so divided he kept trailing off before he could make his point. It was so unlike him that it made her chest tighten uncomfortably. "It's like my body doesn't recognize itself anymore. Everything is different."

She nodded, already miles ahead as she shook herself free from the ever present fog of rut hormones that her body couldn't help but respond to. She didn't know if it was Marcus or the situation but she could already feel the start of her heat flushing through her. Building up to answer the call of her Alpha's rut as every cell in her yearned to lean in and soothe.

"You're still coming off the suppressants. Your body is trying to make up for a couple of decades of chemical changes. I am not going to lie to you, if we can't find a way to make more suppressants, you're going to be feeling these changes after your rut. Muscle growth. Endurance. Increased testosterone. If worst comes to worst, you're going to have to figure out your new normal," she remarked carefully, reaching up on her tip toes to smooth the corner of the towel down the curve of his cheek.

She got caught up in it. Trailing the damp towel down the jut of his jaw and the tense line of his neck until he surprised her by capturing her hands in his. Turning them over gently. Large palms threatening to swallow them completely as the towel slumped forgotten on the floor between them. The moment making tracks towards a stuttered, honest sort of intimacy she didn't quite know what to do with.

"How do you feel?" she asked cautiously, quiet and a little uneven despite the double meaning behind the words. Marveling a bit that he was allowing her this. This stolen little moment of off-kilter intimacy despite how much he was hurting.

"Terrible," he admitted, nostrils flaring as he brought her hands up to his nose and inhaled. Rubbing the soft of her skin against the stubble-rough of his upper lip. Self-soothing and sensual as liquid warmth pooled thick and savory in her belly. Not seeming conscious of the act itself as a tremor she could actually feel against her, wracked through him.

"But I feel- I feel _alive_. Maybe even for the first time," he continued, shaking his head to clear it as he thumbed the bottom flare of her hair like he could feel a difference in the texture. "It's like there's a whole other world I've been blind to all this time and now I can- now I can almost grasp it."

It made her think about something David, her old mentor, had said before she'd completed her training. Marcus had been one of only three Alphas to present in just under two generations across the entirety of the Ark. Thus, unbeknownst to most, they had access to his files for teaching purposes. She had seen the footage more than once. The clips of him being wheeled into a cordoned off section of the infirmary. Viscerally aggressive with his sweat-stringed hair threatening to curl, the tendons in his neck violently tight. Snapping his teeth and pulling wildly at the restraints – all textbook Alpha behavior. Eventually quieting to muted little churls and when they found an Omega orderly in to sooth him with his scent.

It was always right at that point that David would pause the feed and tap at the screen with his stylist. Shaking his head and muttering to himself until she finally took the bait and asked him what he thinking about.

" _Abby, you can take the rut out of an Alpha. You can suppress it to Kingdom Come, but that doesn't change what they are. Who they are. People like that will only really be at peace with themselves until we find a better way," the man always said, spinning this way then that in his desk chair._

" _We are more than our natures," she'd pointed out. Fresh from advanced Sociobiology and more than ready to make a name for herself during the last portion of her residency before her final exams._

" _Being an Alpha is one facet of their personality, Abby, yes. But it is tangled up and engrained too deep to be rid of completely. Take Mr. Kane for example, our station's rising political star."_

" _Marcus? You can't be serious! He is uncompromising, power-hungry," she started, forever hot-headed when it came to this particular argument. "He follows the law to the letter and is almost pathologically_ _detached,_ _logical to a fault and-"_

" _He is using politics and command as an outlet. As he should," David countered, rewinding the video clip back to the beginning and stabbing play with his stylus. "I know you and I disagree on this, my dear, but he is right more often than he is wrong. And lord knows these days, if there weren't rules – consequences for our actions - we would have gone the way of Station 13 a long time ago. I fear we are going to need that kind of pragmatism more and more in the coming years."_

She hid the amused tilt of her lips at the memory.

In hindsight, even with the suppressants, Marcus had always been unmistakably Alpha.

_Strong. Unyielding. Pig-headed. Dogged._

_Completely fucking impossible._

But it wasn't until recently, very recently in fact, that she'd let herself internalize the idea that he had to be. It was who he was, afterall. It was one of the few ways left that he could express himself from the genetic level up. Because underneath all those layers of chemical plugs and hormone blockers, the Alpha in him was still there. Muted, shallow and suppressed, but undeniably alive.

She stayed silent as he shuffled a couple unobtrusive steps closer, thinking it through. Pebbling her skin with the odd drop of water as the warm, butter-rich tones of his rut washed over her. It threatened to pull her off topic – reminding her how every Alpha's scent was different. Like an echo of their personality as her keen nose began to recognize the odd scent melded in with the primaries – but she held firm.

Because looking at him now, feral and real and more than a little bit breathtaking as he looked down at her like she was the center of god damned _everything_ , she was suddenly struck by the rightness of it. Maybe it was time. If the ground was habitable and one hundred young people could survive down there unaided, maybe it was right that Marcus Kane's first steps on the ground were exactly like they were meant to be.

Naturally and unashamedly Alpha.

Just like their ancestors had been before they'd scorched the skies and fled into space.

She considered it all over a series of shared breaths. Hyper aware that they were still standing there, half in the bathroom, half in the hall. _Stalled_. She licked her lips, unable to resist the open tell. Knowing that his eyes were following.

"You shouldn't be here," he tried, voice raspy, rough and just a little bit wounded as a patch of wet seeped through the damp of her underwear. A heady counterpoint to the way he was still rubbing the very tips of her fingers against the plush of his lower lip. Memorizing each nick and crease.

Something in her vigorously celebrated that lie.

Because the truth was in what he _wasn't_ saying.

_That he wanted her to be._

He'd chosen her for a reason – for something that existed beyond the burn of his rut.

It was the man and the Alpha working in tandem.

She swayed on the very edge of it as his other hand reached forward and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Smoothing it into place before resting his palm on the curl of her shoulder. Delighting her with this new, tactile part of him as his thumb rubbed soothing circles into the joint.

It made her think of maybe just a few minutes into her own future and how those same hands might feel against her skin. Dragging down her sides, cupping her breasts, slicking down towards-

She mentally shook herself.

_She'd come here with something to say._

_And this was the moment._

_Before anything else, she had to give him at least this._

"I'm here," she started, correcting herself in real time as his blown pupils blinked slowly. "I wanted to be here before-"

"Before I lose all reasoning power and cannot consent?" he offered plainly, rumbling like loose bolts vibrating through a decaying bulkhead as the words welled up slow. Like he'd practised them in the hours that'd kept them separate.

_It was very Marcus._

The line of her lips tightened a fraction. Hiding the shiver of arousal and relief as she recognized the ghost of his usual tones underneath the rich, dark quality that was threatening to take over. The signature Alpha burr every Omega knew like breathing.

"Yes," she agreed, taking a moment to choose her words so that he would understand. Needing to prove it to him in real time so that there would be no doubt. Already knowing full well what his reaction would be before she put the rest into voice. "But Marcus, if you wanted- it doesn't have to be me. There are more than enough Omegas who would-"

The negative was immediate. Accompanied by a violent jerk of his head as his hand tightened around hers instinctively. Like nothing would be worse than having to let her go. "No. There is no one else. I don't want- I've made my choice. There has never been-"

She felt her face flush – pleased and pink – as he visibly reigned himself in. Looking like this was costing him everything he'd never expected would be so difficult to willingly give up as he forced the rest out in a rush between gritted teeth.

"But I don't want this if you don't. If you don't feel it- Abby, I can't, I wouldn't-"

Her smile was a trillion watts strong, like what she figured the sunrise must be like from the ground as she reached up and ran her hand down the curve of his cheek. Shushing him when he leaned into it, muscles tensing and releasing as she broke the tension with an assenting little hum.

"Shhh," she murmured, thumbing at the corner crease of his lips like the equivalent of a hesitant, opening kiss. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

He wavered in place, shell-shocked.

So relieved she could taste it on the air.

But she wasn't done yet.

"I woke up and you were still here," she said quietly, looking up at him as she used the hand he still had captured to press against her breast. Letting their hands mingle together against her heartbeat as he sucked in a breath without filter. "It wasn't just your scent or your rut. It was you, Marcus. That was when I knew."

Because that was thing, wasn't it?

Just like with Alphas, every Omega could tell.

_Mate._

You could feel the rightness of it underneath skin and sinew. It was a song with a familiar chorus. And looking up at him now, breathing in his scent and wanting him desperately for her very own, for the first time in her life, she finally understood why people shed blood to keep that feeling alive.

"I wish we had more time," he croaked hoarsely, reeling her in until she had her arms around his chest and he was resting his chin on the top of her head. Allowing her to bury herself deep as his scent surrounded her like a balm.

She jerked, surprised. Because while he'd said it out loud, crossing that bridge soundly to reveal his cards without censure or hesitation – bold and unashamed - she'd been thinking it. Coveting it close to her chest as she tasted his stale. Inhaling when he exhaled like she just couldn't help herself.

She wanted-

"Abby."

She looked up, separating them as his chest heaved. Eying his clenched fists and lingering stance as his cock thudded heavily against his thigh. Eyes dark, feral and promising as he took a half-step forward, following her.

And all at once, she knew what he needed.

Because while some things had changed. Other things – things like instinct and the heat of the answering howl that was warming through her blood – always remained the same.


	4. Chapter 4

"I'm right here," she murmured, regaining that stubborn little part of her rather suddenly as she watched his fingers twitch like he wanted to reach out and make that last bit of space between them disappear. "But you'll have to earn it."

The growl she got in response made her stomach flip, smearing slick down her thighs as she quivered with arousal. Feeling the strange, instinctual need to run as he loomed over her, eyes glinting – fever-hot and intensely aware. Not to get away, _no_ , never that, but merely for the chase. To make her Alpha hunt her down and prove his worth. Just like the old ways. Mimicking ancient history where receptive Omegas followed up an Alpha's claim by putting them to the test in the most basic way possible.

All it took was for him to take another half-step forward for her to cave to it.

She felt half her age when she bared her teeth and darted back down the hall. Feeling the adrenaline lace out to tart the air behind her as the sound of something falling – maybe his shaving kit – echoed after her. All of it secondary to the violent, predatory snarl he gave out in response as he lunged after her. Thudding heavily across the corner-clip of the wall as she felt the breeze when he reached for her. Missing her by a millimeter, maybe less, before pounding after her.

It only made her run faster.

She made it as far as the main compartment before he barreled into her, slamming her up against the cool metal bulkhead and holding her there. Letting her feel him as his skin – still nude and dripping – expelled heat like a furnace. Growling loudly into her hair as he ground his hardness into the crux of her thighs.

 _Dominant_.

_Powerful._

_Solid._

_Close._

She tried to wriggle free, soul laughing, before he caught her by the back of her neck and dragged his tongue from neck to collarbone. Owning the moment so completely that she let go of an assenting little whine and went completely lax. Letting him take the majority of her weight as he scooped her up and nuzzled her close. Cock so hard she could feel it throbbing against the small of her back as he bore her back into the bedroom. A dissonant symphony of want and aggression as he tossed her across the mattress and loomed above her. Fully lost to his rut after the chase. Overwhelmed by the need to slake and claim as his teeth flashed blunt in the low light.

He tore at her clothes, making her writhe through the sheets that smelled like him as her shirt and sweater hissed through a rip. Barely having enough time to kick off her slacks before the elastic on her underwear was stretched beyond its limits, fisted tight in his hand before snapping completely.

For a long moment he just stared at her. Throat hitching through a series of heave-dry swallows. Both the man and the Alpha heartbreakingly present as they struggled to find a balance and keep it.

"Abby…" he started, breathing harsh into the sensitive inner of her thigh. The porcelain-pale now dotted red with exertion and half-moon grazes as he pulled his eyes away from her center – neatly trimmed and sheened with arousal – in favor of finding her again.

Impossible as it seemed, she could still see a question there. It was a testament to who he was at the core that they were having this moment at all. This deep in rut this type of coherency was almost unheard of. But it only cemented the warm, sparking place in the center of her chest she had a feeling would be solely his someday. And to think she'd almost missed it. To think that she'd never bothered to look closer, harder, beyond the layers of pride and space-born hardness that stood between them.

It highlighted an evolution that stretched back.

All the way back to when Jaha had been found bleeding out in the hall just after swing shift.

Maybe even before that.

Maybe it had always been there.

Maybe-

"Come here," she said firmly, knowing how much the pause was costing him – how much holding back was killing him. Ironic as it was considering nature and nurture, she knew without having to ask that the first move would always be hers. As far as he was concerned, it had to be.

She pulled him down. Hips arching as she met him for a lingering kiss. Smiling into it as he turned it aggressive and over-eager almost immediately. Cupping at her chin as he tried to keep her where he wanted. She nipped him lightly on the bottom lip in reply as she encouraged him to tip to his side and settle beside her on the mattress. Letting him get used to the new orientation before rolling smartly astride him.

She ignored his warning growl – a classic Alpha response to what most would consider a challenge - and smacked his thigh gently like a reminder. Hushing him through it as she settled on top of him. Keeping him occupied with the intimate press as she figured out exactly where she wanted to be.

He looked up at her – shell-shocked and desperate - exploring her with his hands as he smoothed wide palms down her sides. Treating her to a grimace of bared teeth when his cock smacked gently against the flat of her belly. But instead of acknowledging it she pushed up against him snugly. Letting him feel how wet she was. Smirking through the loose curtain of her hair when he bit off a curse. Cock blurting a fresh trickle of pre-cum as the purpling head shined prettily in the low light.

_Begging attention._

The tip of her tongue made tracks across her lower lip as she considered it.

What he would taste like.

How he'd react.

What sounds she could drag out of him by the _teeth_.

How long she could keep him there, poised and shuddering on the very edge.

But ultimately, she let it go.

There would be time later to draw it out.

To learn each other from the bottom up.

Right now he needed.

_He'd waited long enough._

* * *

 

The landscape of his entire body changed when she finally turned her attention to it. Murmuring praise as she petted down the straining sides. The silky skin turned wet and almost tacky with the pre-cum that sheened it. She watched his face transform, from visibly holding back into a pleasure-pain rictus, gripping her hips as she ran the curl of her thumb down the bulge of his knot. _Curious._ She did it again and again, all maddening feather-light touches as a permanent rumble revved low in his chest. Hands tightening around her hips like they were the only thing holding him back from-

She squeezed her hand around him experimentally, simulating the tightening of her inner walls as he seized in place. Trying to kick-back. Growling low in his throat as dark eyes slitted themselves with anxious pleasure. Chest prominent, giving in to the Alpha urge to present and preen as the tendons in his neck strained all the way through. Hips thrusting up into the press of her hand again and again, desperate, until her fingers fell away and he let go of a muted whimper.

She was still flying on that heady sound when one of his hands suddenly travelled south. Smoothing down the soft inner of her left thigh before dragging the blunt of his nail down the part of her lower lips.

She inhaled throatily, unable to stop herself from leaning in a fraction. Wanting that same pressure she'd teased him with only seconds before as he traced the seam of her with a satisfied, baser sound.

"Marcus…"

Her lower lip was caught between her teeth when she let go of his name. Throat almost painfully dry as he dragged the digit through a smear of her slick. Feeling so wet against him that she knew she was staining the sheets. Wetting his thighs and groin as he took a deep, _wuff_ of a breath. Scenting her as he brought his finger up to his mouth, capturing her gaze from start to finish as the room spun small, close, and possible between them.

There was a flame scorching her from the inside. A thousand fractured explosions of sensation and desire as he licked his finger clean. Feeling destroyed and torn open in the best and worst of ways as the moment dragged, then _snapped_ and suddenly they were _scrambling_.

There was an awkward half-second where she defied gravity and hovered on top him. Trying to find him through the frantic tangle of their hands. Turning the moment wholesomely familiar to first time's everywhere as they navigated the position and the angle before-

"Jesus," he muttered, _wrecked_ , mouthing the word into her skin as she sank down to meet him. Helping sheath himself deeply inside her as his hips arched up, biting his lip until she could smell leaking copper. Letting go of a needy sound when the swollen flare of his glands massaged her inner walls. Adding to the rightness of the moment as she clenched instinctively around the beginning bulge of his knot and watched him almost _writhe_ in place. Head slamming back against the pillows, nails digging in. "Abby."

_God, he was perfect._

_He fit perfectly._

She watched lust cloud his expression in real-time, growling into her hair as he flipped her smartly, sending her sprawling across the sheets, ass up and vulnerable. She only had time to let go of a dissenting little sound before he draped himself over her. Covering her down and keeping her in that way the biology textbooks always talked about. A classic pose for-

He sunk back home with a wordless tangle of noise.

Punching the air from her lungs as he gripped her hips almost harshly.

"Mine," he snarled as he thrust forward, delighting her with the roughness as every snap of his hips highlighted the knot growing at the base of his cock as she scrabbled at the sheets. Feeling him deep. Heart pounding high and heavy in her chest as every part of her screamed _pleasurecontentmentalphayesmore_ all at once.

It was an animal thing, she realized. Caught up as she was in the sweet song of it. Something born less out of finesse and awareness than it was desperation and instinct. Something that put power behind every thrust as he caged her in. Sinking her deep into the mattress so that every time his knot caught, it never had very far to go before it was sliding right back in.

"Mine," he repeated, more forcefully now – insistent like she'd made him think it was a question and not a full out reality at this point. "Mine."

"Yes," she choked, muffled into the starch of the sheets as her back curved and he hit a depth that made her hiss and clench around him. Hiccupping through a fractured sound when the blunt of his thumb circled her clit. Finding her without breaking the rhythm as he huffed into the curl of her back. Vocalizing his pleasure without words or filter. "Yours. Always yours."

The air around them was a living, breathing humid mess. So different from the stark-cool of space that she could almost imagine they were on the ground. That everything was rich and green and Marcus had her crushed into the crumbling dirt of a fallow field. The stalks of the long grass tickling her sides as they brought life back to a barren landscape.

Every part of her felt alive – _remade_ – as the room echoed their pants and murmurs and the slick sound that issued every time he drove himself home. It was too much. Too good. And she didn't know if she could-

His hips jerked. Hijacked by the sudden surge of pleasure as the rest happened quickly. Natural like breathing as she threw back her head and _keened_. Able to feel the exact moment his knot became too big to pull out, inflating rapidly inside her as every muscle in his body coiled with sudden tension. The precursor to the fall as the pleasure centers inside her lit up frenetically. Feeling more than hearing his brutalized groan half a moment before he started to cum. Filling her full as she took everything he had to give and then milked him for more, suddenly desperate to feel the stretch of it in her womb as her Alpha hissed out her name and yanked her in. Sinking his teeth into the pale of her neck as she followed him over the edge and screamed out her pleasure.

"Abby!"

Her orgasm was blinding.

* * *

 

She woke slowly. Unable to shake the feeling that everything had come satisfyingly full circle as she stretched out – cautious. Not bothering to hide the small smile when she realized he was still tied inside her. He had her firmly caught, body curled protectively around hers as he breathed deeply into pale of her sore neck.

The physician in her ran through a quick mental checklist. Marcus was down for the count, pulse steady – normal. Deeply asleep as his body took stock, slowly equalizing after the rigors of rut. She tangled her fingers together and stretched them up above her head as she considered it, stuttering a bit when her subconscious purred out a reminder that this had been his first true rut since he'd presented – making this essentially his first time.

He was hers.

_It was an interesting thought._

_Alluring in a way she wasn't quite used to._

She knew there would be more to deal with later, the loss of the medical bay and the lack of Alpha suppressants were going to cause problems as they moved forward. The handful of Alphas on the Ark would eventually come off the drugs and roll right into their own ruts. Which meant complications and consequences for everyone. In a way it was simple, there were more Omegas than Alphas on the Ark – enough to fill the need and probably gladly. There might even be enough birth control pills for the first round of ruts, but after that? They were going to have to find another way.

If the Ark survived that long, that is.

However, the Omega in her – teased out and flush with her Alpha's rut - was lingering on a whole host of other very intriguing details. Things like the claiming bite throbbing hotly in the cradle of her shoulder. The warmth of him curled strong around her. The calming thrall of his scent filtering thickly through the air as she breathed it in openly. _Wanton_. Basking in the emersion of their scents as she purred without sound. Pleased that her Alpha smelled so settled with her in his arms. Pleased that even as his knot deflated inside her, he only held her all the tighter. Keeping her pinned and safe in a way she didn't know could be so appealing. Memorizing the grate of his stubble as it scored gently across the raised skin of the bite. Feeling truly relaxed for the first time in a long time. Maybe ever.

The lights flickered above them.

Struggling and choppy as the heartbeat of the Ark churned on.

Noisy and slowly failing.

She thought about what Jaha had told her and about the little white pill sweating in the pocket of her jeans on the floor below. But for some reason she didn't reach for it. Instead, she thought about what Marcus had said in the throes of rut. Nuzzling close like he never wanted to leave. _Like he couldn't_. How he'd run a reverent hand down the smooth plane of her belly. Gentle, reverent and yearning. She thought about all the times he'd extricated himself from one relationship after another. Staying aloof and alone despite the aching loneliness that spiraled from his eyes like the harsh black of open space. She thought about how he'd always been there – underfoot, hovering - always just around the next corner. She thought about their disagreements, their arguments and how things might have started to evolve without either of them noticing.

She thought about Jake, Clarke, Earth and the possibility of a fresh start together on the ground as she listened to her Alpha's steady inhale and exhale behind her. Lacing her fingers with his as the arm draped over her hip migrated upwards. Coming to rest just below her ribcage as awareness warmed her from the inside out. Smiling small as she looked out the window and let herself wonder. Watching the blue-tinted curve as the highest point of the planet remained visible from the very corner. Unable to help but think it all seemed very fitting.

_Maybe it was time to make room for all those impossible, fragile things._

_Things with lead hearts and bones thickly calcified with old breaks._

_Things that their ancestors might have called hope._

_Maybe it was long past time._

She let him pull her back down. Enjoying the contented thrum that left his lips in a throaty purr as he encouraged her to coil closer without waking. Chuffing into the tangle of her hair in a way that was deliciously baser. Something that spoke of a couple million years of evolution where the approval of one's mate made the other want to preen and return the same. Stretching out – pleased – as the heartbeat of her Alpha slowly lulled her back sleep.

They needed to be well rested, after all.

There was an entire world down there just waiting for them.

**Author's Note:**

> Reference:
> 
> \- The title, "aquiver" means: "trembling, shaking."


End file.
